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The Cold Light of Day

Director: Mabrouk El Mechri

Cast: Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver, Caroline Goodall, Rafi Gavron, Jim Piddock, Paloma Bloyd

Having already opened in the UK several months ago, the verdict on this film is more or less out… and it’s not very good. Apparently, Mabrouk El Mechri (perhaps best known for the meta Jean Claude Van Damme effort JCVD) delivers yet another standard spy thriller, the presumed plot twists and turns telegraphed in both the billing and the dopey double cross premise. With Bruce Willis cashing a foreign paycheck and Sigourney Weaver supposedly chewing up the scenery, it seems like this is yet another must-miss entry in the dog days of non-summer.

Hello I Must Be Going

Director: Todd Louiso

Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Blythe Danner, Christopher Abbott, John Rubinstein, Julie White, Dan Futterman

Let’s just call this How the Self-Effacing, Ironic WASP Woman Got Her Groove Back and be done with it, okay? No amount of spent indie cred (the man behind the lens is Todd Louiso, the actor turned auteur who made 2009’s god awful The Marc Pease Experience) or quirky casting can save what seems like another example of advanced shoegazing. Maybe this won’t be another monument to mumblecore, or a comedy sans significant laughs (which Louiso seems to excel at). Whatever the case, look for it limp along until the arthouse grows tired of its whining.

Keep the Lights On

Director: Ira Sachs

Cast: Thure Lindhardt Zachary Booth, David Anzuelo, Maria Dizzia, Julianne Nicholson, Souléymane Sy Savané, Paprika Steen.

Gay cinema doesn’t get much love in mainstream movie houses, for always complicated reasons. Aside from the obvious lack of tolerance among many in the general movie going demographic, some of the stories fail to universalize their elements to be relatable to all orientations. In this case, an immigrant documentarian falls for a closeted Manhattan lawyer, with the complexities and challenges of their relationship rising above the niche demo fray. Festival buzz has been strong, though one must once again question the commercial viability of such a subject. Here’s hoping it can break out, instead of being singled out.

Bachelorette

Director: Leslye Headland

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, James Marsden, Kyle Bornheimer, Rebel Wilson, Adam Scott

Bridesmaids proved that girls could do gross out and still maintain their post-feminism “fierceness”. Now comes a decidedly different walk down the same comedic aisle, sort of. Based on a play that predates the Kristen Wiig hit, we get a far raunchier look at the pre-nuptial wedding ‘party’. In this case, three high school friends, attending the marriage of someone they really didn’t like back then, destroy a necessary dress and spend one fateful night trying to get it mended. By all preview accounts, hilarious, blue humor hijinx ensue. Sounds like a solid post-summer entry.

The Words

Director: Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Jeremy Irons, Ben Barnes, Dennis Quaid

Bradley Cooper is carving out one of the weirdest leading man careers in Hollywood. One minute, he’s enjoying the mindless action antics of The A-Team, the next, he’s knee deep in the hoopla of another slice of Hangover. In between, he tosses in thrillers like Limitless, and this oddball entry. Sprung from Sundance, it’s the first film from actor turned writer/director Brian Klugman and his collaborator, Lee Sternthal (both were responsible for the TRON:Legacy storyline). The film is actually a visualization of the new novel being read by celebrated author Dennis Quaid. Jeremy Irons claims plagiarism, and all bets are off.

[REC]3: Genesis

Director: Paco Plaza

Cast: Carla Nieto, Leticia Dolera, Diego Martin, Alex Monner, Mireia Ros, Ismael Martinez

All you lovers of the sublime Spanish horror films [REC] and [REC]2, heed this warning: what you are about to see is not another stellar installment in the revisionist zombie epic. Instead, this is a heartfelt, and sometime hilarious, homage to all the movies that inspired Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza to make horror movies in the first place. The results are guaranteed to grate on those who feel invested in the movie’s mythology and want to know more about the religious experiments going on in that sinister apartment building. What we get this time is splatter and surprises